The Council on Environmental Quality has finalized its amendments to the agency’s FOIA regulations following a 30-day notice and comment period, according to a final rule that was scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on January 21, 2025. The new rules were scheduled to become effective on February 20, 2025.
On January 20, 2025, however, the President issued a regulatory freeze that, among other things, ordered executive departments and agencies to “[i]mmediately withdraw any rules that have been sent to the OFR but not published in the Federal Register.“ It also ordered departments and agencies to “consider postponing for 60 days from the date of this memorandum the effective date for any rules that have been published in the Federal Register, or any rules that have been issued in any manner but have not taken effect, for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy that the rules may raise.”